March against child labor heads for Geneva

By Fred Gaboury

This article was reprinted from the May 30, 1998 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

NEW YORK - Mohan Mukhia, from Saharsa, India, is small for a 14-year-old, in part because at age 6 he became one of the 250 million children from around the world who are subjected to grinding and debilitating labor. Jessica More, a 15-year-old from Manila, was luckier - she didn't go to work until she was 7. Both were among the 17 members of the Global March Against Child Labor who arrived here May 21.

"One day a strange man came to our village," Mohan told reporters. "He promised to send my parents money and that I would be given food and lodging if I went with him."

But it didn't work out that way. Mohan was taken to another city and handed over to the owner of a carpet loom. "We worked 14 hours a day and had only one meal," he said in a voice almost devoid of feeling. "If we worked hard, we were beaten. If we didn't work hard we were beaten. It didn't make any difference."

There were other forms of punishment, as witness the scar on Mohan's right cheek. "My master hit me with a knife," he explained. "Then he put a lighted match to the cut to stop the bleeding. It was very cruel."

Jessica became a scavenger and rag picker in order to help the family pay for the medical needs of her asthmatic mother. "It was very hot and my feet felt like they were burning," she said as she told of wading through heaps of burning garbage in search of "something I could sell."

Unlike Mohan, Jessica was able to attend school. "I studied at night, sitting under a street light," she said, nervously twisting a hand-held microphone.

In addition to being aboard when the minivans left Los Angeles on May 1, Jessica participated in the march as it passed through several countries in southeast Asia.

The march, sponsored by hundreds of organizations in more than 100 countries, aims to establish a worldwide movement to promote the rights of children to receive an education and to free them from "work that damages their physical, mental, spiritual and moral development."

"The time has come to initiate a real endeavor to make the whole world one family for the future citizens of this planet," said Kailash Satyarhi, an Indian national who serves as international coordinator of the march. "When I see the tremendous support the Global March has received, it becomes clear that the 21st century is not going to flourish at the cost of sweat and blood of children."

From New York the group went to Washington, D.C., where after a May 27 kick-off rally attended by AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney and Jay Mazur, president of the Union of Needle Industry and Textile Employees, marchers went to Geneva they will attend a meeting of the International Labor Organization called to deal with child labor.

"We will have about 125 children in Geneva who will tell the meeting of the horrors of child labor from their own experiences," Anjali Kochar, co-chair of Global March/USA, said in an interview.

Jaun Samavia, ILO executive director-elect, attended the New York event. "The question of child labor is a very important question," he told the World. He said he expects the question to continue to be on the ILO agenda for the foreseeable future.

The march began on Jan. 7 in Manila. Feeder marches departed from Sao Paulo, Brazil in February; from Cape Town, South Africa in March and from Oslo, Norway on May 1.

In addition to Mohad and Jessica, those making the trip from Los Angeles to Washington were young workers from Latin America, South Africa and Zambia. The caravan stopped in more than 20 cities while crossing the United States.